Illinois residents fight back against flooding

Many residents are still pumping out basements and estimating property damage after severe storms ripped through the Tri-Cities yesterday, bringing winds in excess of 50 mph and torrential rains.

Erin Sauder and Danya Hooker

Many Illinois residents are still pumping out basements and estimating property damage after severe storms ripped through the Tri-Cities yesterday, bringing winds in excess of 50 mph and torrential rains.

At one point the area was under a tornado warning but there were no confirmations of a touchdown. The pouring rains also played a part in the steadily rising Fox River.

“The power behind the water is incredible,” said John Heneghan of LaFox. He was in Geneva with Tricia Lowery, also of LaFox, to survey the damage. “It’s kind of scary if you think about it, especially if that water builds up and goes over the bridge.”

Wheaton resident Paul Keenon was in Geneva for a haircut, and brought along his grandson, Keano, and his camera to take pictures of the choppy Fox River waters.

“I’m nervous for my grandson if he gets too close,” Keeon said. “Before I could get to him he’d be way down the river.”

Keano, 8, also of Wheaton, stared down at the many basketballs, footballs and softballs which had washed into the river from neighboring houses.

“I’d be really mad if those came from my house,” he said.

Geneva resident Missy Donatelli, who was going for a run along Fargo Boulevard with friend Lisa Buck, said as soon as her children got home from school Aug. 23, everybody headed for the basement.

“This area got hit really hard,” she said.

Buck agreed.

“You could see the storm coming across,” she said.

Donatelli said her children had just done a practice tornado drill at school when an actual tornado alarm went off.

“The kids were pretty freaked,” she said.

In St. Charles, some didn’t sleep at all as they battled to keep rising flood waters from the Fox River out of their homes.

“We were up all night,” St. Charles homeowner Mary Salmon said. “We’re giving it our best shot.”

Salmon’s home is on the intersection of Grove and Lambert avenues about 65 yards away from the river. She, her husband Mike, and neighbors worked tirelessly Thursday and Friday to surrounded the house with a wall of sandbags four high. Water pumps were working frantically to divert the water away from the house.

As of Friday evening, her home was dry. But just next door, Rob and Vicky Metzger weren’t so lucky.

“This is just horrible,” Rob Metzger said. “We bagged and bagged. We fought it from 1:30 p.m. (Thursday) until 7 p.m. but it (the river) just kept coming up and coming up.”

By Friday afternoon, Metzger’s home was flooded with four feet of water. Neighbor’s abandoned the sand bagging effort and began to help the couple salvage what they could from the home.

After a week of steady rain, there was nowhere for Thursday’s heavy rains to go in the already soaked ground and the high Fox River.

The rising river overtook downtown St. Charles and left the river walk completely flooded and turned the Police Department’s parking lot into a pool.

“We’ve got water in our parking lot and this morning we had some carp swimming around in (it),” police spokesman Paul McCurtain. “This is the highest I’ve ever remember seeing it. Since 1976.”

Outside Blue Goose Supermarket on 1st Street, owner Dave Lencioni stood by the Illinois Bridge, which was closed while the river rushed by less than a foot beneath it’s underbelly.

Lencioni said the store a little water coming in through the pipes but sustained no permanent damage.

“It was easily taken care of,” Lencioni said.

Six miles from the river, residents in the Fox Mill subdivision were busy pumping between two and four inches of water out of their basements.

“It’s been a nightmare,” resident Steve Wiersema “I’ve been cleaning up since 2 a.m., our whole block is out, there’s extension cords going from house to house, we’ve got the generators going. We’re a team.”

Wiersema estimated damages between $15,000 and $20,000. He has flood insurance but said he’s worried about his old albums, school mementos, pictures and Michael Jordan memorabilia.

“That’s the stuff you can’t replace,” Wiersema said.

Power outages throughout the area continued to frustrate ComEd employees, with 230,000 customers still without electricity Friday afternoon.

Judy Rader, communications manager, said ComEd is still unable to provide a county by county breakdown.

“We’re facing dozens of downed poles and snapped power lines,” she said. “We’ve even seen trees uprooted and fallen on our equipment.”

Before power is restored, ComEd must replace or repair transformers, wires and poles that were damaged in the storm. Due to the severity of the damage, Rader said ComEd is anticipating a multiple day effort.

Those without power are asked to report the outage by calling (800) EDISON1.

Severe storms are expected to redevelop today. Some areas will receive 2 to 3 inches by tomorrow morning. The southern suburbs and northwest Indiana are at the highest risk for severe weather, said Bill Nelson, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Chicago.

The storms, while severe, are not expected to be as extreme as Thursday’s violent weather. The storm system is currently developing in Missouri and moving northeast.
Although August is one of the wettest months of the year, this amount of rain is atypical, Nelson said. With 13.88 inches of precipitation reported in Rockford so far this month, this is their wettest month on record. Meteorologists have not yet analyzed other Illinois cities.

Lt. Pat Gengler, with the Kane County Sheriff’s office, said three intersections were still dangerous as of 1 p.m. Friday — routes 20 and 47, routes 64 and 47, and Burr Road between Silver and Dean.

Roads barriers will be removed by officials when roads are safe, Gengler said.

“Some people with SUVs think they can get through,” he said. “Even if they can, when the barricades get moved, smaller cars don’t know the road is closed and try to go through.”